Bertram33 User Forum

i looking at a '88 fresh water boat. the surveyor says high moisture reading in engine stringers. but his hammer test says they're solid. i think this is a big problem. what's your advice. thanks, ken

I've never seen or heard of a 33 having moisture problems in the stringers. Not sure I'd worry about it. In fact the only place where its an issue is in the rear cabin bulkhead and in the cockpit deck. Both are easy fixes.

It's fairly common to have some moisture in there. They get drilled for engine mount bolts and other things attach after the boat is laid up so there's always a way to get some water there from washing it down etc. The quality of the wood is good enough that stringers don't really have a rot issue on 33's, even with some moisture present.

If that’s ur only concern not worry go with her

I made a project out of swapping out the engine mount bolts for stainless a while back and was A little alarmed to find out how wet the stringers were inside. However after thinking about that with my freaked boat brain turned off and my engineer brain turned on, I realized that the wood inside doesn’t even much matter unless it’s keep keeping a bolted connection from crushing the outer shell of the fiberglass tube around it. That’s where all the strength is on the stingers in these boats, think of the wood inside as formwork. The moisture can cause bolts to corrode through, which is why I swapped the engine mount bolts to begin with: I put a wrench to one out curiosity, and the rusty bolt snapped with little effort! Meaning my engines had basically been held in place by rusty pins. Not good.

I’ve been entertaining the idea of an experimental project to rig up vacuum ports and an HVAC vacuum pump to suck that water out, but have bigger fish to fry right now.

Ken did you buy the boat? How high were the moisture reading? Just about any boat that age would have a higher reading than a newer boat but that doesn't necessarily mean there is a problem.

It's an old post Buzz. I don't think the guy ever came back.